This article is one of a series on life in the campo, or country living in Costa Rica, as my wife and I* experienced it on our visits and after moving to Costa Rica. Each is a sort of time capsule, the stories evolving with us as we have lived more experiences and delved deeper into the culture.

Your first country bridge in Costa Rica is an experience. Being from the USA, we expect our bridges to be of either concrete or steel. Those long planks on the one in the picture are laying there loose, so they bounce around as you drive over them. It makes an unnerving racket. And this is considered a good bridge.

 In the campo, often you are crossing bridges made of tree logs. The kind of wood commonly used (maybe always) is called corteza, and I am told that it is a very hard, black wood that is resistant to just about everything. The small bridge that crosses a gorge over the Rio Pataste is particularly thought-provoking. Since the road is graveled, it means that dump trucks with 12 tons of stone have crossed over it many times.

A bridge is often made by laying logs across the river or stream using a bulldozer. (I assume that in the past it was done by a team of horses.) This work, and any other work requiring heavy equipment, is done during the dry season. Once a year, a bulldozer comes to all of the fincas to do road work, and you pay by the hour ($20 US). Once the logs are in place, you fill in between them with dirt. During the rainy season, the dirt becomes mud. In the picture, you can see that some of the mud falls through, leaving thought-provoking holes. On the good roads, the dirt has stones from the rivers. North Americans tend to freak out when they see one of these bridges for the first time. (You mean we are going across that ?!)

*We are Fred and Amy Morgan, originally from the US. We bought a dairy farm in Costa Rica to plant trees in its pastures, then later caught a dream of turning all the land we can to permanently protected, sustainably maintained forest once the plantation trees have been harvested for profit. Along the way, we made it possible for our former partner to realize his dream of starting a business of his own in his native land. He is featured in many of the earlier stories.

To read more about Finca Leola S.A. and how you can also invest in trees and at the same time help with reforestation, go to Own Trees with Us.